A War to be Fought
by Astris C
Summary: Sapphire and Steel realise a few hard truths.


"Ready when you are, Steel."

"I was born ready."

Sapphire raised an eyebrow at the remark as Steel unlocked the door bolt with a swift movement of his hand. Once inside, they wasted no time in accounting for their intrusion, and went about their tasks in a smooth but rapid manner, leaving the young man who lived there startled. They had learnt their lesson; appeasing the humans hindered efficiency, and efficiency was getting increasingly important now that Time was more tenacious and difficult than ever.

"Will you two stop moving around and explain yourselves!" the man screamed at them. But they ignored him completely, so he sought an escape out the front door, only to find that it would not open. Steel had disabled its inner mechanisms. He tried the back door, and to his relief it opened, but before he could exit, the door was closed again. He opened it a second time, but before he could exit, it was closed _again_.

Eventually he gave up at it and glared at the woman standing behind him, who looked as if she had been behind all this. He tried the telephone, which refused to operate, and his cell, which had disappeared where he so clearly remembered he had left it. Sapphire and Steel had thoroughly severed all possible forms of communication with the outside.

"What was your wife doing when she disappeared?" Steel addressed him for the first time. The man was speechless with shock, so he was given a deadly tight clench on his arm. The pain stung him awake, and he gasped, "Writing! She was writing! In the study!"

The two operators headed there wordlessly and took their positions. Sapphire picked up the fountain pen from the desk and rewrote the last sentence that was written on the jotter book. Nothing happened.

"What could be wrong?" Sapphire puzzled aloud. Steel leaned over to have a good look at the book, and scrutinized the pages to the very last detail. Finally he said, "The handwriting, Sapphire. It's the handwriting."

Sapphire looked over the words on the paper. The writer's words were smaller and slightly round-ish, while her own were neatly cursive. She smiled and picked up the pen once again. Very carefully, she rewrote the sentence in a perfect imitation of the writer's handwriting. Once the ink of the period mark had seeped into the page, a strong gale blew through the closed window of the room. Invisible hands seemed to grab Sapphire and pull her through the window panes. In an instant, she had disappeared together with the wind.

Steel opened the window and surveyed the area outside, but of course, there was nothing to see. He closed it, then called out twice to his partner, first verbally, then mentally. No response. He seated down on the wooden chair, pondered for a moment, then stared at the book again. An idea popped up in his mind. Hadn't they reversed a break-through by reciting a rhyme backwards?

Steel tried to rewrite the sentence backwards in the same handwriting, but was unable to do so no matter how hard he tried. He even got the young man to attempt it, but to no avail.

Steel was about to give in to panic, when the man suggested, "What about the meaning of the words?"

"What?"

"Well, have you considered the meaning of the words? Maybe it's got... something to do with the disappearance of my wife? And your partner?"

Steel realised what he was saying, and read over the sentence, one more time. Suddenly all made sense.

"I know what to do," Steel said, jumping up from his chair. "Go downstairs, now."

"Why?" the man protested.

"What's your name?" Steel asked abruptly.

"Jacob!"

"Alright, Jacob, please go downstairs. It's for your own good, Jacob. Go there now."

"You haven't told me why."

Steel looked into Jacob's stubborn eyes and returned him an even more stubborn look of his own.

"Oh, because it's going to get _dangerous_ in here."

Jacob nodded in belief and hastily left the room.

Steel settled down in the wooden chair and picked up the fountain pen. He thought about it for a while, then scribbled a short sentence in reply to the last one. The effect was incredible. The gale gushed back into the room, this time even stronger. Papers were sent flying in the air, and the door shut with a mighty slam. He stood up, and the wooden chair he had been sitting on toppled. He flinched as the wind beat at his face and ruffled his hair, and he struggled to see what was immerging from the closed window. He could vaguely make out a shadowy figure that resembled Sapphire, floating into the room along with another woman. The woman was white-faced with terror, while Sapphire looked... petrified. The whirlwind ceased all of a sudden, and they fell to the ground with a thud.

The woman recovered quickly, and picked herself up. "What's happening?"

"You just wrote something you really shouldn't write."

"What?" The woman blinked, trying to look confused. But she thought that maybe, just maybe, she might have an idea what the man was talking about.

"Your husband is downstairs. I highly recommend you staying there and staying put," Steel said gruffly.

As soon as the woman was out of the way, Steel hurried to his partner's side. Her knees were hugged to her chest, her head facing down.

[Sapphire?] he called. No answer, so he seated down on the floor next to her and called her again, this time gentler. [Sapphire, it's over. The woman is back. We have to go.] He placed a hand on her shoulder, and to his surprise, could feel it quivering. Under normal circumstances he would shake her till she came to her senses, but something told him not to do it this time. After waiting for her for what felt like ages, he decided to leave her for the moment.

Steel tidied the messed up room, then went downstairs. The couple was sitting on the sofa helplessly with nothing to do. They looked up when he entered, expecting some sort of explanation. He had nothing else to do either, so he questioned them.

"Tell me about that book you wrote," he addressed the woman.

"Why don't you read it yourself?" Jacob interjected. Steel shot him a continuing glare until he got the message.

The wife hesitated before uttering, "It's about Time, and my own theories about it. Just ideas, that's all. I didn't know what could happen. I mean, it _couldn't_ happen!"

"And it _has_ happened!" Steel yelled. "What you have done is detrimental to the time continuum! You should at least believe your own writing when it says that Time has moods!"

"But it's over, isn't it?" she said meekly. "I mean, everything's back to normal now, right?"

"No! It's _never_ over!" Steel bellowed as he began to pace the room. "Tell me what happened when Time took you from that room."

"I saw... things."

"What things?"

"I can't describe them. I don't really understand them... It was confusing, you see.

"Where were you?"

"I don't know, it wasn't a physical place... but I could feel a general atmosphere of pain... and misery. Unpleasant feelings. The feelings of Time, as you would put it."

"And then?"

"I was there for a really long time, and then that woman- your friend- she appeared beside me. She told me she was going to help me, and then she just stood there as still as statue. Her eyes started glowing! I tried talking to her but she wouldn't answer me. She seemed to be sensing... or communicating with something. And then we floated back into my study, just like that! Please, I have no clue what is going on. I'm helpless, both my husband and I are, don't... don't blame us for anything."

"I won't _blame_ you, no," said Steel. "But for your own safety, as well as ours, I'm going to have to destroy your book."

"What!" the couple gasped in unison.

"I've been working on it for a whole year! And it's nearly finished!" the wife protested.

"Sorry," he said cheerlessly. Just then he heard a very faint sound, it was almost inaudible, but he could hear it. It sounded like a moan, or a whimper. Whether he heard it externally or in his mind, he did not know, but he was certain about where it came from. "Wait here," he ordered the couple, and headed up the stairs.

He found Sapphire in the study, sitting in the same position, but quietly weeping. The scene almost bewildered him, for he had never before seen his partner this affected. She looked _broken_. Whatever she had experienced must have been traumatic beyond anything they had seen. He sat down beside her again and called to her.

[I'm here, Sapphire. Please answer me.]

Finally, she obliged in a shaky, gaspy voice,

"I can't win."

Steel frowned.

"What do you mean you can't win? We've brought the woman back, haven't we? This assignment is completed. We've won."

Sapphire only shook her head.

"No?" he said.

"There's no end..." she said sorrowfully. "No winner..."

"What did you see?"

Sapphire shook her head again, and breathed heavily as she fought the images that refused to leave her mind.

"I need to know, Sapphire."

Sapphire gasped before giving a choked reply,

" _Time_."

That wasn't very new to Steel. "You've seen... or _sensed_ Time more than once before, I take it that you have things in common."

She shook her head. He was utterly missing the point. "Pain..." she continued. "Hopelessness... Futility..."

"Feelings," he decided. "So are these your feelings or Time's feelings?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but ended up breaking down in faint sobbing.

Steel wasn't very sure how to handle the situation anymore. He grasped her arm and told her firmly, "We have to go, Sapphire. As soon as we leave we can sort out those feelings."

Sapphire finally raised her head and looked at him, revealing her sparkling, teary eyes.

"Steel, you don't understand."

"Don't understand what?"

" _Time_!"

Now that couldn't be. "Of course I understand Time! I know how it operates, or why else would I be here?"

"That's where you're wrong," she said sadly. "That's where we were both wrong, before I saw inside of it. Inside its mind."

Steel was beginning to see what she was getting at. It was a case of empathy. A case of empathising with Time as he would a person.

"What do I need to know?"

"You need to _understand_ , Steel."

Steel furrowed his brow. He wasn't made for understanding.

"How?"

Sapphire closed her eyes and let the tears spill over, before opening them again.

[Look into my eyes, ] she pulsed. Steel complied, and her eyes glowed an eerie blue hue. [Look into my mind.]

Steel lost himself in the blueness, and soon he could feel himself drifting away. To where, he did not know, but his feet landed on a different ground, and he found himself standing in the middle of a dark, mystical corridor.

Sapphire's voice resounded through it,

 _There is a corridor... And the corridor is Time..._

He began to move, involuntarily, along the dark corridor. He tried to fight it, but it was no use. An invisible force seemed to be pushing him, and at a rapid speed.

 _It surrounds all things, and passes through all things..._

He could see many doors along the corridor, all representing different things; different objects, different events, different lives.

 _The corridor is very strong, it has to be... But sometimes, in some places, it becomes weakened..._

As he passed by, he could see very briefly, some open doors that led to different rooms, weak spots where he could possibly break-through.

 _Sometimes, Time can try to enter into the Present. Break in... Burst through things... Take people..._

He couldn't stop his movement, and neither could he teleport out of the corridor. He tried to call out for Sapphire, but to no avail. He reached for some of the open doors, but whenever he tried to enter into a room, the door closed on him.

 _Like fabric... worn fabric..._

He continued to move, down, down, down. The corridor felt endless and seconds felt like days. A weariness began to settle in on him, and he lost track of time. How long had he been in there? Eons? To his surprise, he heard his very own voice echo throughout the corridor,

 _Time is immense... Time and the unknown... a thousand million miles... It's very very big, and very very dangerous..._

It startled him, and he began to panic. He tried once again to reach the open doors, but they whizzed past him before he could get near them.

 _They're forever moving along it... Searching... Looking... Trying to find a way in..._

Another room appeared next to him, and he reached for it. With all his energy, he pushed himself until he managed to float in. At last, he had entered into the room! But before he could even get a good look around, the mysterious force pulled him back out into the corridor, and the door of the room slammed in his face. His own outraged voice blasted in his ears,

 _They must never be allowed in! Never ever!_

The force resumed its course along the corridor, and the door drifted away...

 _They're always searching... Always looking..._

Frantically, he glanced around him, hoping for more rooms to escape.

 _But we stopped them... Held them... Took the trigger away from them..._

All the doors of the rooms closed as he moved past them, one by one. The force pushed him along, faster and faster. Two shining orbs appeared overhead, one bright sparkling blue, and one deep shimmering blue. Sapphire and Steel. A familiar voice boomed,

 _All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension..._

The wind howled and shrieked in his ears, images swam before him and bitter memories overwhelmed him. He could feel tears burning in his eyes. He understood now. He understood it all too well.

"Sapphire!" he called out. "Sapphire!"

 _It is our job to safeguard the structure of Time... The past, the present, and the future... All of it..._

"Sapphire! I understand now!"

 _Stopping it, whenever it happens, is our job and that's all we're doing here..._

"I understand Time now, Sapphire!" he cried. "I know what it feels!"

 _No end... No winner..._

"Please, Sapphire! Make it stop!"

The two shining elemental orbs moved closer toward him, and slowly transformed into a pair of glowing blue eyes. He got lost in the blueness once more, and the force stopped pulling at him. The corridor vanished, and he found himself kneeling on the bedroom floor, face to face with Sapphire.

Once the glow died out, Steel collapsed onto his side and let the tears fall.

"No end..." he breathed.

Sapphire shook her head.

"No winner..."

"No." Sapphire stared out into the space in front of her, with no expression on her features. "What did it feel like to you?"

"I felt... It felt as if I were stuck in that trap in the cafe room, all over again."

"Waiting for nothing?"

"Exactly!" His voice was now filled with anger. "It's a pointless war, Sapphire! A war that _no one_ can ever win!"

"And it is our war," she added.

"And it is our war," he repeated despairingly. Right then, the door opened and Jacob and his wife stood there.

"What are you doing here?" Jacob addressed the two people who were sitting dismally on the floor of his study. The two operators stared at each other, then picked themselves up. Steel pulled himself together and said grimly to Jacob's wife, "Your book has been most enlightening."

"Oh... really? Thank you," she said, surprised.

"It has helped us to realise... certain things."

"That's... very good to hear," she nodded. "So you're not going to destroy it, then?"

"You can keep it," he said as he headed abruptly out of the room. Sapphire followed. After enabling the phones and doors to operate again, they left the couple with their house without so much as a goodbye.

They arrived outside. They were in the countryside, and countless stars were twinkling brightly in the night sky. They walked along the path slowly, with no destination in mind.

"There are flowers in bloom here," Sapphire said softly. She bent down and touched the flowers on the side of the path. "Oenothera Biennis. Evening Primrose. They bloom only at night."

Steel watched as she caressed the petals wistfully. Normally he would ask her to state the relevance of her findings. But there was nothing to relate to now. He only knew that Sapphire liked flowers. She stood up and they continued on their path. After a long silence, she spoke again,

"Existence is a strange phenomenon."

"Oh yes." Steel agreed. "It is."

"Especially when something exists with no purpose."

He looked at her, confused. "But _we_ exist with a purpose."

"I know, we do." she answered. "I'm talking about other things."

"Other things... Like?"

"Flowers. Humans."

"They exist to procreate."

"And we exist..."

"For a sole purpose," Steel finished. "For an endless war."

"It is remarkable what people can come up with, using just some pens and paper," she said thoughtfully.

"Oh, quite." Steel admitted. "The things they can dream up. Things that tally with the very nature of the Corridor. The very nature of Time."

"Time never stops."

"Never."

"And Time never asked for this."

Steel glanced at her. "Perhaps not."

"It's tired," she said. "Worn out."

"And so are we."

They stopped in their tracks and stared at each other.

"Not so different then, are we?" Sapphire surmised.

"What?"

"We, and Time."

"Maybe," he said pensively.

"We have things in common," she affirmed.

"Time keeps going."

"Yes."

"So _we_ have to keep going."

Sapphire looked down at the pavement, then at the flowers.

"I suppose."

Steel noticed the look of disconsolation on her face. He never had any doubts about her strength, but at this moment, he began to see more strength in her than he ever did before. She, as a sensitive, had been through things that he thankfully never had to experience, and in a way, her role in their partnership was more vulnerable than his own. Yet she had stayed with him for all this while, unyielding and unscathed, if not only shaken. It was a strength she sustained in spite of fragility. To lift her spirits, he picked a primrose from the side of the pavement and placed it into her hand. In a tone softer than usual, he told her,

"Lots of life here on Earth wouldn't exist if not for us, Sapphire. It is a pointless war against Time, but there are still some things worth fighting for."

"And what if we can't win?"

"Then we shall lose together," he said. "Always together, as long as you keep going. We'll see which of us holds out longer- we or Time."

"Perhaps I'm not strong enough," she said, a stray tear rolling down her cheek. Steel brushed it away gently, then cupped her hands in his.

"No, Sapphire, perhaps you don't know how strong you truly are."

She looked into his eyes, and was touched by the sincerity she saw in them. He had long since spoken to her this kindly. She looked down at the primrose she held in her hands, which were in turn being held in Steel's. She then looked up at the sky full of stars above her. She faced him again and smiled.

"Because of you Steel, I might just know what I'm fighting for."

THE END


End file.
